Creating artwork is both a very relaxing and very stressful activity for me. I don’t do it as often as I should, but when I do, I try to make the work something special.

Recently I have begun to notice similar trends between how my sketching process plays out compared to other projects I get involved in. In fact, the similarity is so much so that it’s kind of scary. There exist parallels between projects of different kinds, and by understanding my own sketches I’ve come to see how I handle most projects.

I’ll admit it. I’m behind the times. But thanks to Netflix I am able to catch up on a bunch of TV series that I’ve been missing out on, the most significant right now being Mad Men.

I can now see why there is such a buzz about the show with most of it centering around Donald Draper, the main character. Whenever I watch shows like this I am always curious as to what makes a character like him a truly memorable one.

It could be the charisma. The charm. The creativity. Mostly, though, I think it’s his mysteriousness.

So many scenes are finished with the viewer wondering, “What’s going on in that handsome head of his?”

If Draper is actually productive in daily routine, we wouldn’t know it. The show doesn’t go deeply into what he does in his office for work other than three main activities.

At any point in the day random thoughts can flood our head. Thoughts of the past, of the future, of what we are going to eat for lunch. At any point we may come up with an innovative idea, and just before we can find a pen, we get distracted and lose everything.

Thinking, in all of its glory, can be so disconnected as to make it seem like you have no control of what jumps in and out of your cranium.